CAF has been debated many times on this forum and it has recently been even more discussed as we go over what different types of camera can and can’t do. Despite this and owning two Olympus DSLRs and doing Birds and Planes I have never used CAF The reason crazy as it may seem, is because I read on here some years ago that CAF doesn’t work on Olympus DSLRs. Maybe I imagined that because now the main concern re micro 4/3s seems to be the poor CAF in comparison to DSLRs.

For three years, I have just carried on regardless using SAF and constantly refocusing and with some success. Yesterday I was photographing airliners at Heathrow with my E520 and accidentally switched to CAF. Instead of changing straight back I thought I’d see how well it did. Wow I was amazed at how well it works, both with side to side and planes coming head on. When I was checking my shots last night my success right was extremely good although in a burst of 6 there was invariably one that missed.

The irony was just an hour before I had taken a phone call agreeing to sell my 520.

If you check my history I was the one saying that the Olympus CAF works great. I even posted a sequence of a fast motorcycle coming towards me, every single frame was in focus. That was with the E-620 and kit lens small 40-150mm

Now with the E-5 and the 35-100mm (which is considered a slow lens) I was able to track everything without effort, from soccer players to super fast planes at air shows.

I don't use Olympus anymore, but for me their C-AF worked not just good, but fantastic.

I always wondered how there are so many people saying the C-AF don't work on Olympus, and I always said it was about techniques and settings.

And boy I was proved right, when I switched to Nikon. In my plan to go light, I nou use a Nikon D5100 with 55-200mm, which is considered a very, very slow lens. Guess what, I was able to shoot a soccer game in challenging C-AF situation (but good light) and the keepers rate was almost 80%. It works great. Now go to Nikon forums and see how people are having trouble even with Nikon pro body and lenses.

Conclusion, the Olympus C-AF works like it should, it's a matter of settings and technique. For who is interested, I have a set of settings and techniques for the E-5 that makes this camera a tracking glue-to-subject wonder, send me a PM.